Rebecca Brocato is founder and principal at Stony Run Advisory. She launched Stony Run after serving as chief of staff of the Development Finance Corporation (DFC). With $34B assets under management, the DFC functions like a bank, providing equity investments, loans, and political risk insurance to private sector-led projects in the U.S. national security and economic interest.
Brocato served previously as special assistant to President Biden and NSC senior director for legislative affairs. In that role, she was the principal adviser to the National Security Council on Congress and legislation. Brocato oversaw Biden Administration engagement with Congress on sensitive intelligence matters, China policy, the Afghanistan withdrawal, and nuclear deterrence policy, among other issues. She advised the president on managing congressional efforts to impose new sanctions and export controls, and prepared cabinet members, including the secretaries of State, Defense, Commerce, and Treasury, for congressional briefings and hearings. She was a lead White House negotiator on bills including the annual defense authorization bill and the CHIPS and Science Law.
In the Obama Administration, Brocato was the president’s chief liaison to the House Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, and Intelligence committees and managed the administration’s engagements with the Hill around the Iran Nuclear Deal. She also served at the State Department, where she focused on foreign military sales and Middle East policy.
From 2017 to 2020, Brocato was on the leadership team of the foreign policy advocacy organization National Security Action. In this role, she helped pass landmark anti-corruption legislation that had been languishing for more than a decade.
A native of Baltimore, Brocato is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford. She began her career as an aide to Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD).